


The Missing Child

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2013-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 04:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A child has disappeared from her garden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Missing Child

**Author's Note:**

> Mention of child abuse.

The Missing Child

by Bluewolf

The call came in just before noon - a distraught-sounding, almost incoherent man. "My daughter's disappeared!"

"Could I have your name, please, sir."

"You can't waste time with me! My daughter... "

Jim glanced helplessly at his partner as he put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. "Guy's daughter's missing."

Blair nodded and took the phone. "Sir? Before we can help you, we need a little information. How old is your daughter?"

"She's not quite five. She was playing in the garden - "

"And you're sure she's not hiding?" 

"There's nowhere she could hide."

"Is there any chance she could have slipped outside, gone to play with a friend?"

"No, the gate's childproof. She couldn't open it. You've got to find her!"

"All right, sir, can I have your address?"

"SHE'S NOT HERE! You need to find her - " There was panic in his voice.

Blair drew a deep breath, silently urging himself to be patient. "We need to have somewhere to start looking, and your house is the obvious place to start. You need to give us your address."

"Oh... 3176 Walker."

Blair scribbled that down. "And your name, sir?"

"Fallon - Jed Fallon."

"Thank you, Mr Fallon. We'll be there as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, could you check the garden again, and the house in case she went in to use the bathroom, perhaps."

"She would have had to pass me to come into the house." Blair's quiet attitude - unconsciously, he was using the tone that was most effective in pulling Jim out of a zone - seemed to be calming the man.

"All right. My partner and I will be with you as soon as possible."

***

Jed Fallon had obviously been watching for them; as Jim opened the gate - registering that it was, indeed, very securely fastened - he opened the door and met them when they were still halfway up the path.

"There's still no sign of your daughter?" Blair asked. Because his people skills were generally better than Jim's, they had found it better if he did most of the talking in this kind of situation.

"No, none. I've phoned Audrey - her mother - she's on her way home now." Fallon hesitated. "Audrey has a very well-paid job - earns far more than I did - as well as having a much better prospect for promotion, so after we married... Amber didn't really like the place Audrey had been leaving her during the day, thought she was being babied there, so it made sense for me to stay at home to look after Amber, at least till she's old enough to go to school, while Audrey carried on working - "

"Is Amber actually your step-daughter, then?" Blair asked.

"Yes, but I think of her as my daughter."

"How long have you and Mrs. Fallon been married?" Jim asked.

"Oh - just three months. But I've known Audrey - and Amber - for over a year."

"And Amber's father?"

"You think he might have taken her? No. He walked out not long after Amber was born. They were living in Tacoma at the time. Audrey was promoted and transferred to here not long after; there's no way he could know that, know where she moved to."

"But your wife managed to divorce him?"

"They weren't married. Audrey told me once that she was glad of it, because it made things easier. It took me a while to convince her to marry me, that I wanted marriage to let her see that I was serious about her. But all that doesn't matter! You need to find Amber!"

As he finished speaking, a car stopped behind Jim's truck and moments later the gate opened and a tearful woman rushed in. The gate banged shut behind her as she ran to Fallon.

"Jed? Is there any sign - ?"

He caught her in his arms. "No. God, I don't know how she got out! I was working in the kitchen, looking out of the window every five minutes or so to check on her. She didn't come into the house, she couldn't have opened the gate herself... "

Blair glanced at Jim, who nodded slightly. He paused for a moment longer, allowing Fallon a little time to try to calm his wife, before saying, "Can you give us a description - or, better, let us have a recent photo - and tell us what she was wearing this morning?"

"Oh... yes." With his arm still around his wife, Fallon led them into the house.

There were a number of photos around the living room, placed on almost every suitable flat surface.

Audrey Fallon moved to sink into a chair, while Jed picked up one of the photos. "This is one of the most recent," he said as he gave it to Blair, "and actually that's what she was wearing today. It's her favorite rig-out."

The child was wearing dark trousers and a pale blue T-shirt with a picture of a horse's head on it. "She likes horses?"

"Loves them. We've promised her riding lessons for her fifth birthday."

Blair nodded. "Now - you say there's absolutely no way she could have come into the house without you knowing? What about a back door?"

"There is one, but it opens directly onto the street, and we never use it. Even if she could get to it, it's kept locked, and she doesn't know where the key is."

"Is there a side gate giving access to that side of the house?"

"Yes, but it's childproof too."

"Before I met Jed, I just trusted that the fastenings on the gates were too high for Amber to reach," Audrey said. "He was the one who insisted, right from the start, that the gates should be childproof. I thought I was careful - he made me see I wasn't careful enough."

"And that's what makes this so worrying." Jed, in the presence of his wife, seemed to be calmer, less panicked, but Jim, at least, knew that it was a forced 'calm'. He was being strong for her.

"All right," Jim said quietly. "It sounds as if someone opened the gate and took her away - "

Jed interrupted him. "We've taught Amber to watch out for danger. If a stranger came into the garden and tried to abduct her when I wasn't looking out of the window, she'd have screamed."

"Would she have gone with someone she knew?"

"Well, possibly, but I think she'd still have let me know - and I can't think of anyone she knows who would have taken her away without letting me know. Why would they?"

"There is Doris," Audrey said slowly, almost reluctantly.

"Doris?" Blair asked.

"My sister. She lives in Seattle, but she's visited often enough that Amber knows her." She looked at her husband. "I never told you, and she hid it well any time she visited, but she tried to persuade me that I was making a mistake even going out with you. She kept saying, 'You don't need a man in your life' - she won't have anything to do with men herself. She hated our stepfather - I never knew why. It could have been that she remembered our father - I didn't. I was only two when he died, but she was eight - and resented another man in Mom's life. I remember how happy she was when he was killed in an accident three or four years later."

"So if her Aunt Doris showed up at the gate and called to her, Amber might have thought it was okay to go with her?" Blair said.

"I still would have expected her to come and tell me," Jed said.

"Not if her aunt said something like 'Your Mom knows, and she'll tell your Dad'," Blair suggested.

"But Doris would know that we'd be worried!" Audrey exclaimed.

"Phone her," Jim said. "If she's at home that would instantly clear her."

Audrey shook her head. "She only has a cell phone. She could answer that anywhere."

"Phone her anyway," Blair said. 

Audrey looked at him for a moment; he smiled encouragingly, and she reached for the phone.

/Hello./

"Hi, Doris, it's me. Doris, are you at home?"

/Yes. Why?/

Audrey's voice wavered. "Amber's disappeared. You're about the only person she'd go with... "

/Are you sure your husband doesn't know anything about it?/

"Yes, I'm sure. All right, Doris. Thank you." She put the phone down. "She's at home."

"All right," Jim said. "I have an idea I'd like to follow up. If Amber turns up, phone me - " He handed Jed his card. "As soon as we know anything, we'll be in touch."

"One thing - " Blair said, resisting as Jim began to hustle him out. "What's Doris's second name?"

"Younger."

"Thanks." Though he was far from sure that she heard it as the door closed behind them.

As soon as they were outside, with the door safely closed, Blair said, "Okay, Jim, what did you hear?"

"Doris said she was at home - she was lying through her teeth. She was, probably still is, in a mall - and I heard that fancy clock in the Wilkenson Tower's child level chiming the half hour."

They piled into the truck, Jim stuck his light onto the roof, and floored the accelerator.

***

Jim screeched to a halt in a no-parking area in front of Wilkenson Tower. Leaving the police light in place he jumped out and ran into the building, Blair at his heels.

One of the elevators was just emptying, with two or three people waiting to enter it. Jim rushed over, badge in hand. "Cascade PD! Please wait for the next elevator, folks." He punched the 'up' button; Blair joined him just as the doors were closing. "Thank you!" His final words were almost cut off as the door slid shut. He glanced at Blair.

Not even Blair was sure whether his panting was due to being out of breath from the mad rush to keep up with Jim, or was caused by a threatening panic attack - he had avoided the Tower's elevators ever since the Galileo... incident. But he was grateful that Jim, who was himself breathing fairly hard, ignored it, as if taking it for granted that Blair was simply out of breath.

The elevator stopped and the door opened. Blair beat Jim out, though only by a second. Jim paused, head slightly tilted, looking around. "This way!" He jogged off; Blair took a deep breath and followed.

The woman approaching the counter, small child in tow, bore a strong resemblance to Audrey Fallon; the child's T-shirt was pale blue. The way she was standing, they couldn't see her face properly or if there was a horse's head on the shirt, but Jim had no doubts.

"Doris Younger?" 

She swung around, and Jim could see panic in her eyes. She turned as if to run, but Blair had already moved to her other side. His attention appeared to be on the child as he said, "And you're Amber Fallon," but Jim knew that Blair would catch any move that Doris might make.

Jim pulled out his badge. "Cascade PD," he said. "Doris Younger, you are under arrest for abducting Amber Fallon from the garden of her house."

"She wanted to come with me!" Doris exclaimed. "She knows I'll keep her safe!"

Blair said quietly, "Amber, do you want to go home?"

"Yes," the child whispered.

"No!" Doris exclaimed. The prospect of letting Amber go home to her mother and stepfather seemed to horrify her. "She isn't safe there!"

"How not?" Jim asked.

"Her mother wouldn't - won't - listen to me when I tell her Amber isn't safe with that man in the house! She's totally besotted - she won't - can't! - admit that he's dangerous."

Jim and Blair glanced at each other. "In what way?" Blair asked.

"The way no child is safe with a man in the same house!"

"Do you mean you think Mr Fallon is abusing Amber?" Jim said.

"If he isn't yet, it won't be long before he starts."

"When he missed Amber and phoned the police, he told us he thinks of Amber as his own daughter," Blair said quietly.

"Like that would stop him? It didn't stop my father - or my stepfather."

"Mrs Fallon didn't say anything about being abused - "

"She was a lot younger. Another year or so and our stepfather would have begun on her. I was glad when my father died - I had a few months of peace - but then Mom remarried, a man who'd been a friend of my father's, and it began again almost at once. I tried telling Mom, and she wouldn't believe me - just as Audrey won't believe that the man she married is a danger to Amber."

"Ms Younger, men aren't automatically pedophiles," Blair said. "Not many men are."

"Of course you'd say something like that! You're a man! You don't know - " 

"I do know," Blair said quietly. "Like all of us, I was once a child. My mother never stayed with anyone for more than a few months, and most of my 'uncles' were great, but one or two... I was lucky, my mother believed me and we left them before they had the chance to molest me twice, but don't try telling me I don't know what some men are capable of. But you can't tar all men with the same brush just because one or two are rats."

"I'm a very good judge of character, Ms Younger," Jim said, "and I don't think Mr Fallon is capable of harming Amber in any way."

"Excuse me." It was a brisk-looking man with an air of authority. Jim thought he looked vaguely familiar. "Tom Watson, head of building security. Is there a problem?"

Jim snapped his fingers. "Of course! Jim Ellison. We met when Galileo was trying to extort five million dollars from Mr Wilkenson."

"I thought I recognized you from somewhere," Watson nodded. "What's the problem here?"

"Ms Younger here took her niece out of the garden of her home without telling her brother-in-law. When he realized the child was missing, he phoned the police. I don't suppose Amber's parents will want to press changes, but what Ms Younger did has wasted police time and she will certainly be charged with that. A misdemeanor rather than a crime, certainly, but we have a lot more serious things to do than chase up someone who has behaved so thoughtlessly. Now, we want to get the child home - her parents are very worried."

"Yes, of course," Watson agreed.

***

As soon as they were in the truck, Blair said, "Amber, do you know your phone number?"

"Yes." She rattled it off, and Blair punched it into his cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Detective Sandburg, Mr Fallon. We've got Amber safe. It was her aunt who took her. We're on our way back with her now."

He could hear Fallon calling, "Audrey, Amber's safe!" before he said, "Thank you."

At 3176 Walker, Jim remained in the truck with Doris Younger while Blair took Amber to the gate and opened it. Amber ran in and rushed up the path, meeting her parents coming to meet her when she was halfway to the house. Blair waved. "We'll be in touch," he called and returned to the truck.

***

At the PD, Doris Younger was charged with wasting police time by removing her niece from the garden without her parents' knowledge, and it was Blair's recommendation that she be considered for psychiatric treatment.

When they returned to the bullpen, Blair phoned the Fallons again. Once again it was Jed who answered.

As soon as he had identified himself, Jed said, "Thank you!" again. "Has Doris said why she didn't just come to the door, let me know she wanted to take Amber out for a while?"

"Yes, and it's not a pretty story. Could I speak to your wife?" Blair asked.

There were voices in the background for a few moments before Audrey said, "Hello?"

"Mrs Fallon, when you were a child... did you ever have any reason to worry about being left alone with your stepfather?"

"No." He could hear the puzzlement in her voice.

"Ms Younger said she tried to tell you that your husband was dangerous?"

"Yes, but she would never say why. I didn't pay any attention to her."

"If what she said is true... She said she was molested when she was a child, by both your father and your stepfather. It seems to have left her thinking that all men are like that."

"Oh." She sounded shocked. "I never saw any sign of it, but I was only two when Dad died, and six when our stepfather was killed in an accident. Doris was twelve by then."

"From what she said, we got the impression that the abuse started when she was six or maybe seven. Now - unless you want to charge her with... well, kidnapping, because it's pretty clear that she meant to take Amber back to Seattle where 'she'd be safe', we're only going to charge her with wasting police time, maybe getting her committed to Conover for mandatory psychiatric help."

"No - no, I don't think we want to charge her. Where did you find her?"

"Well, it occurred to us that she'd maybe taken Amber shopping, to buy her a present, so we went to Wilkenson Tower - that's got the best child department in Cascade - and landed lucky."

"You know... I nearly said... when I phoned Doris I thought I heard the Wilkenson Tower clock chiming - it's very distinctive - but... well... "

"You found it easier to believe what she was saying?" Blair murmured sympathetically.

"Yes. After all, she's my sister... "

"She did think she was acting in Amber's best interests - "

"You didn't believe there was any... any substance in what she said about keeping Amber safe?"

"Not for a moment. It was clear to us that your husband's view of Amber was loving and strictly paternal. That he would kill to protect her. Her biological father might have walked out - but you have a good man now. He'll look after you both."

"Yes," she said. "I think he will."

Blair put down the phone and looked at Jim. "They won't press charges," he said, and sighed. "I feel sorry for Doris."

Jim nodded his agreement. "Did you mean it, when you told her that you... ?"

"Yes. It only happened twice, more inappropriate touching than actual abuse, and like I said, Naomi believed me and got us the hell away from the guys. I can't imagine what it was like for Doris, not being believed. I'm not surprised she was left damaged."

"With luck the psychiatrists at Conover will manage to sort her out."

"I hope so." 

It was time to go home. Together, as always, they left the bullpen.


End file.
